The wild turkey is a wise old bird

The wild turkey is a wise old bird

1of4Wild turkeys live in family groups consisting of males, hens, and young birds. Males and females have a pecking order in the family structure.Photo: Kathy Adams Clark / Kathy Adams Clark/KAC Productions

4of4Wild turkeys have been a favorite game bird from the time of the Aztecs. The birds historic range is North American down to Mexico.Photo: Kathy Adams Clark / Kathy Adams Clark/KAC Productions

Name the bird that’s about 4 feet tall, weighs about 24 pounds, runs 25 mph, flies 55 mph and has more than 5,000 feathers in iridescent mahogany, copper and green.

Need more hints? Its vision is three times better than human vision, and its ears hear sounds farther away than human ears.

Oh, and it’s a family-oriented bird, with males, females and young living and dining together peacefully in a forest. Reminiscent of our families dining together at Thanksgiving.

Ah, you guessed it. The wild turkey.

Most people will not be cooking a wild turkey for Thanksgiving dinner. They’ll instead be roasting a commercially grown domesticated turkey with little resemblance to a wild turkey — except for lineage.

Spanish explorers to the New World in the 16th century learned that American Indians kept domesticated wild turkeys for food and decorative feathers. The explorers hauled wild turkeys back to Europe, where poultry farmers produced a domesticated variety of barnyard turkeys with fatty breasts and white feathers.

Some of the European settlers arriving in America brought a supply of barnyard turkeys, a breed that lacks the ability to fly and isn’t as smart as their wild ancestors.

Wild turkeys

Endemic to Mexico and North America.

Early European explorers apparently named them for a type of fowl found in Turkey.

They’re gallinaceous birds in the same order as grouse, quail and pheasants.

Males are polygamous, mating with several hens whom they lure by uttering deep-throated gobbling sounds audible a mile away.

Both sexes utter such vocalizations as purrs, whines, yelps and clucks.

Populations plummeted to about 200,000 during late 19th century due to overhunting and deforestation.

Game management helped restore populations to about 7 million, but recent declines to about 6 million are due in part to insufficient nesting habitat.

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Wild turkeys are energetic birds that can even outsmart the wits of turkey hunters. They have longer necks, smaller head and slimmer bodies than domestic turkeys.

A family of wild turkeys consists of males, hens and poults, or young birds. Both males and females have a hierarchical position or “pecking order” within the family structure.

The family flies down from roosts in trees during early mornings and late afternoons to forage for acorns, nuts, berries and seeds along with modest amounts of insects, spiders and worms. They feed on a home range that may overlap noncompetitively with other family ranges.

Male turkeys, called toms, have bald, red-skinned heads and necks tinted in iridescent blue and with skin nodules called caruncles. Bristlelike feathers, called meso filoplumes, protrude from the breast to resemble a beard extending up to 16 inches.

A fleshly protuberance, called a snood, hangs over the beak, while a red fold of skin, called a dewlap, sags below the chin, giving rise to the term “turkey neck” in people. Sharp spurs on the back of the legs become weapons in fights with rivals.

Females, called hens, are similar to males except for having dull brown plumage. Nor do hens sound off with a “gobble-gobble-gobble” call like the males.

Be grateful at Thanksgiving for the wild turkey that Benjamin Franklin called “a true original native of America.”

Gary Clark is the author of “Book of Texas Birds,” with photography by Kathy Adams Clark (Texas A&M University Press). Email him at Texasbirder@comcast.net.

Gary Clark is the weekly nature columnist for the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News. He also publishes feature articles in state and national magazines and has written four books: "Texas Wildlife Portfolio," "Texas Gulf Coast Impressions," "Backroads of the Texas Hill Country" and "Enjoying Big Bend National Park." Gary is also a contributing author in the book, "Pride of Place: A Contemporary Anthology of Texas Nature Writing."

He has won eight Lone Star College writing awards and is the recipient of the Houston Audubon Society 2004 Excellence in Media Award and the Citizens' Environmental Coalition 2010 Synergy Media Award for Environmental Reporting.

Gary is professor of business and developmental studies at Lone Star College--North Harris. In 32 years at the college, Gary has served as vice president of instruction; dean of Business, Social and Behavioral Sciences; associate dean of Natural Sciences; professor of marketing; professor of developmental writing; and Faculty Senate president. He is a recipient of the Teacher Excellence Award.

Gary has been active in the birding community for more than 30 years. He founded the Piney Woods Wildlife Society in 1982 and the Texas Coast Rare Bird Alert in 1983. He served as president of the Houston Audubon Society 1989-1991 and purchased the North American Rare Bird Alert for Houston Audubon in 1990. He was vice president of the Board of Directors for the Gulf Coast Bird Observatory 2001-2008. He currently sits on the Board of Advisors for the Houston Audubon Society and Gulf Coast Bird Observatory. He is also a member of the American Mensa Society.